COMPUTING

Sierra Leone IT centre complements Africa e-network plan

A proposal from India's new High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, Shamma Jain, is paving the way for an Information Technology Centre for Excellence in the country in the wake of the recent agreement on the Pan African E-Network project.

The new technology center is designed to promote entrepreneurial skills, enhance human resource capacity and facilitate transfer of technology through implementation of IT-related training programs, Jain said.

The center follows other assistance efforts made by India through the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC) and the Special Commonwealth African Assistance Plan (SCAAP). It is also being built on the heels of an agreement on the Pan African E-Network project.

"Thirty-two African countries including Sierra Leone have signed agreements with Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) to implement the Pan African E-Network project," Jain said when formally presenting her credentials for her new post last month to Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma.

Koroma said the E-Network project "holds tremendous promise for revolutionizing medicine and education in the near future."

Telemedicine will enhance health care delivery and give doctors and other medical practitioners in Sierra Leone the opportunity to send complicated cases to colleagues in India for proper diagnosis, said Sierra Leone Foreign Affairs Minister Zainab Bangura in a radio address last week. Once the E-Network is fully operational, doctors in Sierra Leone will also benefit from an hour of online medical training daily, Bangura said.